Mao's place in history (textbooks)

So this morning at Starbucks I was lucky enough to spy a cast-off New York Times. One of the front page articles was an analysis of new high school textbooks currently in use in Shanghai (and at this point only Shanghai). It appears that Chairman Mao is barely discussed.

When high school students in Shanghai crack their history textbooks this fall they may be in for a surprise. The new standard world history text drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, social customs and globalization.

Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.
Nearly overnight the countryÂ’s most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950Â’s. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves todayÂ’s economic and political goals.

Supporters say the overhaul enlivens mandatory history courses for junior and senior high school students and better prepares them for life in the real world. The old textbooks, not unlike the ruling Communist Party, changed relatively little in the last quarter-century of market-oriented economic reforms. They were glaringly out of sync with realities students face outside the classroom. But critics say the textbooks trade one political agenda for another.

They do not so much rewrite history as diminish it. The one-party state, having largely abandoned its official ideology, prefers people to think more about the future than the past.

The new text focuses on ideas and buzzwords that dominate the state-run media and official discourse: economic growth, innovation, foreign trade, political stability, respect for diverse cultures and social harmony

Apparently there is a little more on Mao covered in the same curriculum at the junior high level. Other subjects that are limited or eliminated include several imperial dynasties, the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Long March, and the Rape of Nanjing. The article is interesting in light of how young minds are expected to be shaped in light of the history taught them.

Kublai Khan is also mentioned in the article as troulesome to Chinese history-teaching. Randy and I discussed this last year, related in posts here and here.